Electrical appliance cord



Aug. 10, 1948.

J. F. CAVANAGH 2,446,907 ELECTRI CAL APPLIANCE CORD Filed Oct. 10, 1946 INVENTOR. J72? .77 60v anag finvww ATTORNEYS.

Patented Aug. 10, 1948 ELECTRICAL APPLIANCE CORD John F. Cavanagh, Providence, R. I., assignor to Nelson G. Burke, Warwick, R. I.

Application October 10, 1946, Serial No. 702,492

4 Claims.

This invention relates to a cord for an electrical appliance such as may be used to attach the electrical appliance to a wall socket or such as may be used for a testing instrument.

In the use of electrical appliances some sort of a cord is utilized for plugging in the appliance to an outlet socket in the wall or in some fixture. Many of the appliances, particularly testing instruments and the like, have the case which receives them provided with some sort of a space for holding the electrical cord and in order that the cord may be fitted into this space the cord must be folded upon itself. It is frequently found that in folding the cord the lengths of the back and forth sections are made either too long or too short and the cord does not properly fit into the space to receive it, thus making it necessary for the person folding the cord to again fold it. Some cords fold with difficulty and there is no guide whatsoever to direct a person in so manipulating the cord.

One of the objects of this invention is to provide an electrical appliance cord which is so arranged that it may be very easily folded so as to be conveniently housed in the space which is provided therefor.

Another object of this invention is to provide a cord which will naturally dispose itself into folded position with sections of a predetermined length.

Another object of this invention is to provide a neater package of an attachment cord for an electrical appliance or a testing instrument.

Another object of the invention is to provide a very simple and inexpensive manner of forming the cord.

With these and other objects in View, the invention consists of certain novel features of construction, as will be more fully described and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a portion of the cord constructed in accordance with this invention and in partly expanded position;

Fig. 2 is a plan view illustrating the cord as in folded position;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a reinforcing strip of one design;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view of a rubber insulated cord with the reinforcing strip of Fig. 3 mounted therein;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a modified design of reinforcing strip;

Fig. 6 is a sectional view showing this reinforcing strip as positioned in the cord.

In proceeding with this invention at the time that the tWo insulated wires which go into the cord are assembled and covered with a braid or other covering in proximity to each other, I assemble with the cord a strip of stiff material of a plurality of short sections which are spaced from each other sufficiently so that the cord which is naturally of a flexible character may be flexed to be disposed back and forth upon itself for packaging.

With reference to the drawing, l0 designates generally an electrical appliance cord which is composed of electrical conducting wires I! and I2 each covered with rubber as at l3 and [4, while the two wires with their rubber covering are engaged in a braided material designated generally 85 and extending throughout the length of the cord. A suitable plug it may be used at one end while the wires may be attached to some appliance or instrument at the other end.

As the casing of braided textile material i5 is placed in position about the wires I will provide a rod of some stiff material such as H, and shown in Fig. 3, in perspective as arched as at is on either side thereof, between the rubber covering of the wires it and i and thus this short section of stiff material which may be a plastic of any suitable rod-like structure will be held in position between the wires and in the braided casing about them as shown in Fig. 4.

In some cases instead of providing a rod-like structure such as shown at El two sections l9 as shown in Fig. 5 may be assembled on either side of the wire within its covering, each arched to provide a concavity 29 so as to receive the two wires so that as the braided material extends about these members, it will be encased therein. These sheet-like stiffened structures 49 may be of Celluloid or other plastic material and will be of a character sufficiently stiff so that they will cause the cord to fold upon itself in sections such as 2! and 22 as shown in Fig. l. The stiffened sections such as i i and 89 will be spaced apart so as to leave a more flexible portion such as 23 between them and thus when one wishes to fold the wire upon itself, these stiffened sections of uniform length will cause the wire to readily dispose itself in folds of uniform lengths and a very neat package will be provided.

I claim:

1. An electrical appliance cord comprising a plurality of flexible insulated wires, a casing holding said wires together, a plurality of stiffening members within said casing and tandemly arranged with their ends spaced for the flexing 3 of said wires at the location of the space between them to govern the packaging of said cord.

2. An electrical appliance cord as in claim 1 wherein said wires are curved in cross section and. said stifiening member is arched to extend about the said curvature of said wires.

3. An electrical appliance cord as set forth in claim 1 wherein the cord comprises wires encased in a covering and said stifiening means is located between said wires.

4. An electrical appliance cord as set forth in claim 1 wherein the cord comprises wires encased in a covering and said stiffening means is located about the outer surfaces of said wires.

JOHN F. CAVANAGH.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 235,734 Brooks Dec. 21, 1880 460.606 Vogler Oct. 6, 1891 2,107,416 Huth Feb. 8, 1938 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 135,020 Austria Oct. 25, 1933 

